Abu Dhabi: Briton’s Paul Bonhomme has clearly made the UAE’s capital course his own. The defending champion won his fourth title in eight appearances here in sensational fashion by a mere .084 seconds ahead of Australian Matt Hall in the season- opening Red Bull Air Race World Championship at the Corniche bay on Saturday.
Hall’s timing of 00:57.871 was enough to eclipse the timing of Canadian Peter McLeod, who clocked 00:58.843 for third. Austian Hannes Arch with a two-second penalty in the final had to be content with the fourth place.
“It was hard day’s work as I was pitted against Nigel (Lamb) twice and I’m not sure what the reason is about my dominance here but I think it maybe because other teams have been a little show coming out of the block at the beginning of the season. So we will have to see how it goes in the races ahead,” said an elated Bonhomme, who has won here in 2008, 2010, 2014.
A jubilant Hall attributed his success to all the work he put in before and during the race, saying: “I’m really impressed with everything we put in race here. To give myself a fighting chance out there was great. I thought I executed everything well today. Little less aggressive and tried to be consistent and it was great take a place on the podium.”
McLeod was elated with his effort: “We were testing things at the start of the season so to come out well with a finish on the podium is great. Two days ago I never thought this was going to happen.”
Earlier in the round of 14, Bonhomme got the better of compatriot Lamb with a time of 56.901 but the latter still managed to scrape through to the next round as the lucky loser - with the quickest losing time of the seven races – 57.108. Thus, Bonhomme’s worst fears came true as he had to again battle against Lamb in the round of eight for a place in the final.
Clearly a bit harsh considering that Bonhomme was fastest in the qualifying and had beaten Lamb in the round of 14 as well. The opening race thus has clearly raised questions on the rule change which gives virtually no advantage for the pole setter.
Also making it to the round of 8 were Hannes Arch of Austria, who piped Germany’s Matthias Dolderer clocking 57.653seconds and Matt Hall of Australia (1:00.084) despite hitting a pylon went to beat rookie Francois Le Vot of France by a whisker (1:01.014). Peter Besenyei of Hungary got past American Kirby Chambliss, who was forced to retire due to technical problems. Garmin Racing’s Pete McLeod of Canada, Japan’s Yoshi Muroya and France’s Nicolas Ivanoff also made it to the round of 8.
Arch will face Besenyei in the Round of 8, McLeod squares off against Muroya, Ivanoff will race Hall and Bonhomme will face Lamb once again with the four winners advancing to the Final Four.
In the round of eight too, Lamb proved no match for Bonhomme as the latter was 00:01.482second quicker than the defending World Champion. Arch here had a one second penalty for exceeding speed limit but still managed to pip Peter Besenyei by 00:00.092seconds. McLeod got the better of Muroyo of Japan by 00:00.481seconds, while Hall bushed aside the challenge from Ivanoff.
The Challenger Cup was clinched by Chilean pilot Cristian Bolton by putting the fastest time with a penalty free 01.02.231. Though Petr Kopfstein of Czech Republic, who was the last out on the track, threatened to take the top spot from Bolton but split times dented his chances and he had to be content with second in the final standings. The third place was bagged by Mikael Brageot of France.
“I’m starting my second year in the Challenger Cup, so all that learning and experience is resulting from what happened for me today. My last flight was in Fort Worth, Dallas last year and I finished second, which I thought was great. But this is really exciting.”
